LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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DISCOURSE 



ON OCCASION OF 



THE ANNUAL THANKSGIVING, 



MDCCCLXI. 



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DISCOURSE 



DKLIVERED IN THE 



SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ALBANY, 



NOVEMBER 28, 1861, THE DAY OF 



THE ANNUAL THANKSGIVING, 



IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 



BY WILLIAM B. SPRAGUE, D. D. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE YOUNG MEN OF THE CONGREGATION. 




ALBANY: 

PRINTED BY C. VAN BENTHUYSEN. 
1861. 






A few sentences have been added since the delivery. 



MAJOR GENERAL M^CLELLAN, 

COMMANDER IN CHIEF 
OF THE ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES, 

THIS DISCOURSE 

IS MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, 

WITH PROFOUND ADMIRATION 

FOR THE UNSURPASSED ABILITY 

AND HEROIC DEVOTION TO 

THE INTERESTS OF HIS COUNTRY, 

WITH WHICH HE IS CONDUCTING 

THE GRANDEST MILITARY ENTERPRISE 

OF THE AGE. 



DISCOURSE. 



ISAIAH XXiy, 15 — Wherefore glorify ye the Lord in 

THE FIRES. 

The character we bear and the position we 
occupy, form, jointly, an unmistakable index 
to our duty. We are offenders against God, 
and we belong to a race of offenders; and 
hence we are bound to humble ourselves, and 
to endeavour to reclaim others. We are always 
liable to suffer, and the world in which we live 
is full of suffering; and hence a reason why 
we should cultivate a spirit of patience and 
trust, of sympathy and benevolence. We live 
under the government of an infinitely good and 
gracious God, and there is not an hour, even 
in the darkest night of adversity, when we 
are not sharing the tokens of his bounty ; and 
this feature of our condition surely demands our 
unceasing gratitude and praise. These several 
dispositions, forming the leading elements of 
Christian character, are not to be cultivated 
as if each was an insulated quality, independent 



6 

of the rest, — but in harmonious combination ; 
while yet the circumstances in which we are 
placed, must determine which of them, at any 
given time, is to be brought more immediately 
into exercise. 

The general truth which I have here stated, 
has, if I mistake not, a striking illustration in 
the present condition of our country ; and I 
might, Avith equal ease, and equal propriety, 
derive from it an argument for the cultivation 
of any of those inward feelings, or the perform- 
ance of any of those outward acts, to which 
I have referred. I might ver}^ reasonably call 
upon you, as a part of this great nation, to 
humble yourselves before God for that crimson 
guilt which has so long been challenging the 
Divine justice, and has now brought us into 
circumstances of such fearful jeopardy. Or I 
might address myself more immediately to 
your benevolent feelings — I might invoke your 
sympathy and prayers for the multitudes, 
North and South, who are weeping bitterly 
to-day in their desolate homes, because those 
whom they loved most have fallen in battle ; 
or I might invoke your charity in aid of the 
brave soldiers who have gone to do our work. 



and who will soon be encountering the blasts 
of winter, and some of whom, I may add, are 
already suffering from diseases or wounds ; or I 
might invoke the exercise of a considerate and 
forgiving spirit towards our brethren with 
whom we are in conflict, — the mass of whom 
we believe to be acting under an honest 
delusion. But the circumstances in which we 
are assembled, while they do not exclude any 
of these subjects from our contemplation, but 
rather bring them before us, at least indirectly, 
yet point our thoughts mainly in the direction 
of mercies received. And this is in full 
accordance with the Proclamation of our 
honoured Chief Magistrate, which I have just 
read to you. 

To glorify God is to use our faculties in 
obedience to his will, and in honour of his 
perfections. To glorify God in the fires is to 
cherish the right dispositions, and perform the 
fitting actions, in the time of trouble. We 
glorify Him when we bow quietly, patiently, 
trustingly, before his righteous hand. We 
glorify Him when our spirits grow familiar with 
Heaven, as we take fresh lessons in the furnace. 
We glorify Him by using the means, which 



affliction may bring with it, of doing good to 
those around us. And, finally, we glorify Him 
in a thankful acknowledgement of the mercies 
which mingle with our afflictions, and qualify 
their severity, and of the benevolent ends, in 
respect to both ourselves and others, which 
we can see, in the distance, as having been 
accomplished through our suffering. Hence 
the propriety of keeping a Day of Thanks- 
giving now, when the political heavens are 
giving forth nothing but storm and hail ; when 
the whole nation is writhing and struggling 
because the iron is piercing her heart. 

The return of this anniversary, as has been 
very properly intimated in the Proclamation, 
finds us in quiet possession of a large part of 
our accustomed blessings. We, especially, who 
live at a distance from the scene of conflict, 
are hardly sensible of any diminution of our 
means of enjoyment, except as we necessarily 
share the suspense and agitation incident to our 
near relation to those events which are electri- 
fying the whole world. If we look into our 
dwellings, we find our tables as bounteously 
spread, and our domestic relations fraught with 
as manifold blessings, as ever. If we extend 



our views into the community to which we 
more immediately belong, we witness the 
general prevalence of peace, and health, and 
industry, and mutual confidence. If we think 
of our religious privileges, we find that they 
are in no wise diminished ; and if we send our 
thoughts abroad, where the missionaries were 
doing their Lord's work on the last Thanks- 
giving Day, we shall see them engaged still, as 
busily, and cheerfully, and successfully, as 
ever. These are all blessings which may now, 
and at any time, very properly come up in 
thankful remembrance before God ; but, in this 
discourse, I am going to take you into the very 
midst of the fires, to find the material for your 
gratitude to work upon; and I shall hope to 
show you that it is a benevolent as well as a 
just God who is moving in all this darkness ; 
that in the events we deplore, there is some- 
thing besides bitterness, and terror, and death; 
and that it becometh us to wait, in thankful 
expectation, for that jubilee which shall crown 
the lifting away of the cloud. Let me then 
suggest several grounds of thanksgiving con- 
nected with that general state of things, which 
we so earnestly deprecated in the prospect, and 



10 

which is so deeply fraught with present 
calamity. 

I. The conflict in which we are engaged, has 
brought into vigorous, unquestionable exercise 
that spirit of lofty patriotism, which had slum- 
bered so long that its very existence had 
begun to be doubted. It is a law of human 
nature that we come gradually to undervalue 
those blessings which we never see put in 
jeopardy. These goodly institutions, under 
whose shadow we have reposed so long, had 
their foundation in the labours, the sacrifices, 
the very blood, of our fathers ; and the world 
never saw a purer, nobler patriotism than that 
by which they were animated. These men, as 
long as they lived, kept the fire glowing, not 
only in their own bosoms, but in their children's 
also ; but since nearly all of them have passed 
away, and our memories are no longer refreshed 
by the personal recital of their heroic sufterings 
and exploits, there is reason to fear that our 
appreciation of the inheritance they have 
bequeathed to us has lost somewhat both of 
vividness and of gratitude. And there has 
been yet another adverse influence at work, — 
that of political partisanship — men of dit- 



1] 

ferent factions, in their regard for minor, 
perhaps personal, interests, — possibly for the 
mere indulgence of passion or the triumph of 
self-will, have suggested, originated, or sanc- 
tioned measures of dangerous, if not fatal, 
bearing upon our national prosperity. The 
result of all this has been, as might be expected, 
that the public mind has become darkened ; 
the public conscience defiled ; the public heart 
hardened ; and whether or not the spirit of 
true patriotism must not suffer from such a 
process as this, judge ye. It has suffered, — 
insomuch that many wise and good men have 
believed that they were walking over its grave. 
It was not dead after all ; and yet it required 
an almost miraculous energy to revivify and 
re-establish it, and put it once more to its 
appropriate work. One year ago, when we 
assembled on the occasion of this anniversary, 
we felt that the general warring of the political 
elements among ourselves cast a dark shadow 
over us — the harsh murmurs of joarty spirit 
grated upon our ear ; and it seemed as if the 
altar was preparing on which our national 
liberty was to be offered up. To-daj^, we do 
not indeed see all the political parties merged 



12 ' 

in a common mass, — and I do not believe that 
would be a thing even to be desired ; — for men 
are most likely to do right when they know 
that there are some Avatching to see if they do 
wrong — but in regard to the question whether 
the great political fabric which our fathers 
built, shall stand or fall ; whether we shall 
make an inglorious surrender of all that we 
hold dear as a nation, or cling to it at the 
sacrifice of our blood ; — I am sure that if there 
are any who even falter at this point, they take 
care to give utterance to their views in the 
night, and then speak only in whispers. And 
it is refreshing to mark the history of the 
revival of the patriotic spirit. It slept, or at 
best was in doubtful exercise, amidst the plot- 
tings and even the ravings of party, for several 
months after the terrible engine, designed to 
crush our liberties, began to show itself; and 
even those who were ready to stand by their 
country, in any emergency, and at any hazard, 
were obliged to look at that instrument of 
destruction for a long time before they could be 
persuaded that their eyes were in contact with 
an actual reality. But the bombardment of 
Fort Sumter, followed by the bloody scenes in 



13 

the streets of Baltimore, cured us all of our 
incredulity in respect to the doom to which a 
portion of our countrymen had adjudged us. 
We saw, we felt, then, for the first time, that 
we had certainly reached a point of imminent 
peril ; and that the question we had to settle 
was whether the nation should live or die. 
And then it was that the patriotic fires burst 
forth on every side of us ; in high places 
and in low places; from the bosoms of men 
of opposite parties ; — constituting a glorious 
pledge that all minor questions 'of policy should 
be postponed until the one great question, 
involving our national existence, should be 
determined. 

But was not this the mere efiect of a surprise ; 
an effervescence of feeling, which would die 
away with the occasion that immediately pro- 
duced it ? Perhaps, in view of the acknowledged 
elasticity of our national character, we should 
have had no reason to complain if such a ques- 
tion had been asked when the great impulse 
to the public mind was first communicated ; but 
it is too late to ask it now; for history has 
already anticipated the answer. That universal 
involuntary movement, that formed the august 



14 , 

response to the barbarous attack on Sumter, 
inaugurated a new and better condition of the 
public mind: the intense excitement, thus 
originated, gradually settled into a calm and 
earnest purpose ; and the whole loyal heart of 
the country pledged itself for the preservation 
of our Union. The President, by his Proclama- 
tion, convened Congress — and a nobly patriotic 
body it was — a few indeed, by their treasonable 
deliverances, sought to produce discord in the 
otherwise harmonious deliberations, thus fixing 
upon themselves a mark of infamy that will 
last when every other memorial of them has 
perished. But, with these humiliating excep- 
tions. Congress, — though still consisting of two 
parties which had been sternly arrayed against 
each other, — yet moved on in the majesty of 
a substantially united body, responding to the 
calls of the President with a promptness and 
an alacrity that all posterity will honour. They 
authorized the raising of an army fully adequate 
to the emergency; and they provided, as far 
as they could provide, the requisite pecuniary 
means for prosecuting the war; and then it 
only remained for the people to say whether 
they should be met in hearty and vigorous 



15 

co-operation. The process of voluntary enlist- 
ment began at once in all the loyal States, and 
has been going on ever since ; the mere 
stripling, and the man of gray hairs, has each 
claimed it as a right to fight for his country ; 
and now, after the lapse of a little more than 
seven months, more than six hundred thousand 
men are actually in the field, or are ready to 
enter it. And, as for money, not only were the 
treasures of Wall Street proffered to the Govern- 
ment with a freedom which knew no limit, but 
many of the more prominent monied institu- 
tions in our large cities offered themselves as 
auxiliaries for carrying on the war. We should 
have expected, beforehand, that, in a majority 
of cases at least, parental or conjugal or filial 
love would have sighed over, if it had not 
actually protested against, the departure of the 
nearest kindred on an errand of so much 
uncertainty and peril ; but, instead of that, 
we hear, on every side, of mothers and wives 
and daughters, bidding good cheer to those 
most dear to them, even when they cannot 
resist the impression that they may be parting 
to meet no more. And I may say, in this 
connection, that the very nobility of patriotism 



16 

is constantly displayed by our women. The 
newspapers are, almost every week, reporting 
to us the presentation, by ladies of the highest 
rank, of splendid banners to military com- 
panies ; — banners on which the Stars and 
Stripes, gloriously displayed, bear witness that, 
even if the men should falter, the female heart 
of the nation would still be all right. And 
there is yet another testimony, of the same 
import, in the use to which the sewing machine 
is put, in man}^ a dwelling, for providing our 
brave soldiers with comfortable garments, and 
especially in those truly honourable gatherings, 
in which the high and the low, the rich and 
the poor, work together, and then blend the 
fruits of their labour in one common patriotic 
offering. And as I have spoken of the women, I 
will speak of the children also — for the military 
air and badges with which they appear, march- 
ing about the streets, is significant — it shows 
that Patriotism has become domesticated in 
our dwellings, so as to give complexion to the 
sports and diversions even of our little ones. 

I should be unjust to my own sense of duty, 
if I were not, in connection with what I am 
now saying, to render a distinct tribute to some 



17 

of the illustrious men, whose names are most 

closely and most honourably interwoven with 

the pending enterprise. There is already a 

pretty long list of martyrs to this cause; 

prominent among whom are Ellsworth, and 

WiNTHROP, and Greble, and Ward, and Lyon, 

and Baker — these and many others, who have 

poured out their blood as a free-will offering to 

their country, deserve a lasting memorial ; and, 

as sure as there is gratitude in the American 

heart, they shall have it. The memory of 

Douglass, too. Patriotism will ever cherish ; 

for though he died not on the battle field, and 

lived not to witness any thing beyond the 

earliest stage of the conflict, yet the utterances 

even of his death-bed were a lesson to the 

nation, on the great duty of self-preservation, 

which she has already embalmed in her inmost 

heart. And then to come to the living — I 

will say nothing of those who occupy the 

highest places in the government, except that 

the party who would gladly have prevented 

their being placed there, are now not only 

generally tolerant of their measures, but 

actually meet them in a spirit of generous 

confidence and co-operation — and more or 
3 



18 

better than this I could not wish to say. 
Among those whose patriotic eloquence has 
most effectually enlightened and thrilled the 
masses in different parts of our country, are 
Holt, and Everett, and Dickinson ; each of 
whom has hereby established a fresh claim 
upon the gratitude and admiration of posterity. 
McClellan and Wool, Anderson, Dixand Sher- 
man, may very well represent the great spirits 
of our Army ; and Dupont and Wilkes, of 
our Navy — yes, Wilkes, even though we were 
to admit, as we do not, that the legality of the 
act that has immortalized him, is still an open 
question. Some of our Ex-Presidents, it is 
well known, have their hearts fully in the great 
national movement, and, in their dignified re- 
tirement, are counselling to energetic and deci- 
sive measures ; and one of them, an honoured 
inhabitant of our own State, ^ does not disdain 
to appear weekly in a soldier's uniform, and 
drill a military company. Crittenden, too, 
Kentucky's venerable statesman, who laboured 
so long, so honestly, and yet so ineffectually, 
for compromise, instead of showing a pitiful 
resentment that his counsels were not heeded, 
by refusing all co-operation with those from 

*Mr. Fillmore. 



19 

whom he differed, has shown himself as mag- 
nanimous as he is patriotic — his great mind 
and great heart are both fully enlisted in the 
service of his country ; and his noble son, with 
sword in hand, represents him on the field. 
And if I were to undertake to add to this list 
the names of those who have been, and still are, 
serving their country, by means of the pen, I 
should present to you a host, made up of not a 
small portion of our most gifted minds — I 
should repeat a multitude of honoured names, 
which are as household words in the walks of 
American literature; and among them the 
name of Parson Brownlow would certainly have 
a place, though, if the latest accounts may be re- 
lied on, it seems doubtful whether his pen or his 
sword is to win for him his brightest honours. 
In short, Patriotism has had her well trained 
agents in all the various spheres of public activ- 
ity. She directs the thoughts and purposes of 
those who fill our stations of influence and 
honour. She moves among the masses, like a 
good angel in white robes. She breathes light 
and hope into the darkness of the hour. And 
who will not say that her presence is to be ac- 
knowledged as a blessing from on high ? Should 



20 

we not greatly come short of the aj)propriate du- 
ties of this day, if we should fail to give God 
thanks that Patriotism has no longer a dubious 
existence here, but is displaying herself in de- 
cisive, far-reaching, mighty manifestations ? 

II. Another ground of thanksgiving, in con- 
nection with the events of the day is, that we 
are permitted to live in a period of such surpassing 
interest. But I hear you ask whether the exact 
opposite of this is not true ; and whether the 
sentiment I am now putting forth, does not 
contradict the whole tenor of a discourse, in 
which, not long since, I endeavoured to show 
you that the great and good spirits, wlio were 
then passing away, were mercifully taken 
from the evil to come. I answer, the state- 
ment in that discourse, and the position which 
I now assume, are in perfect harmony. The 
explanation of the apparent discrepancy is, 
that it is a mixed state of things with which 
we have to do; that bright events have their 
dark side, and dark events have their bright 
side ; and that the same event, in different 
aspects, may be fraught with both calamity and 
blessing. The war now in progress brings 
with it terrible scenes of distress and desola- 



21 

tion ; and we cannot but pronounce those highly 
favoured who have escaped them by being 
called up to Heaven ; but it is no less true that 
the war is a great school which God Himself 
has opened for the improvement of the living — 
there are lessons given here, in relation not 
only to the deep things of the human heart, 
but the great principles of the Divine govern- 
ment, fitted to enlarge our views and exalt our 
characters, and which ought, therefore, to be 
received with thankfulness and praise. 

If the scenes through which we are passing 
be contemplated as a mere matter of curiosity, 
(and this is the least important view we can 
take of them,) we shall find that they possess 
an interest not often paralleled in human expe- 
rience. Curiosity, or the desire of knowledge, 
is among the original principles of our nature ; 
and wherever you find human beings, there 
you see its operation. How men will cross 
oceans, and climb mountains, and traverse 
deserts, and imperil their lives, merely to be- 
hold the wonders of nature, or, as the case 
may be, to stand on the spot rendered memo- 
rable by some signal event in history ! What 
an oracle every living relic of the Revolution 



99 



is at this day ! How eagerly we question him 
in respect to all that he saw, and heard, and 
felt, during that dark period ; and how his very 
presence renders more impressive the events 
that are perfectly familiar to us ! And Avhen, 
aided by' the light of history, w^e go back a lit- 
tle farther ; when we pause amidst the stirring 
scenes of the old French and Indian wars, or 
amidst the fearful perils and trials that attended 
the first settlement of our country ; Or when 
we penetrate yet deeper into the past, and read 
of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, 
and its more ancient destruction by the Chal- 
deans, and of the circumstances which attended, 
and the consequences that followed, the siege, in 
each case, are we not half inclined to wish that 
we might have seen with our own eyes these sig- 
nal wonders that history has reported to us ? 
We are thankful for the record ; but we cannot 
help feeling how much more minute would have 
been our knowledge, and how much more im- 
pressive the facts, if we could have actually 
witnessed what we now receive only on testi- 
mony. I do not say that the events, now 
taking place among ourselves, will ever rank 
in the same category with those just referred 



23 

to, as marking the grand epochs of Jewish his- 
tory ; and I do not say that they will not ; for 
there is some reason to believe that they are 
introductory to a new stage in human affairs — 
but certainly here is a field in which the most 
intense curiosity finds itself gratified and re- 
warded ; in which the most inveterate lovers 
of the marvellous and the startling may expa- 
tiate indefinitely, and yet be finding some fresh 
wonder every day. Will not our children, 
whose memories are taking in these grand and 
terrible occurrences, if they should live three- 
score or fourscore years, think it a privilege 
to have been the witnesses of what is now pass- 
ing ; and will not the generation that succeeds 
them, sit reverently in their presence, to hear 
of the great things of which they will then be 
the only living depositaries ? 

It is not, however, merely or chiefly the 
gratification of curiosity that constitutes the 
advantage of living at this period ; but, as I 
have just intimated, Providence is now most 
impressively urging upon our consideration 
certain great moral truths, having res23ect to 
our danger and our duty, to man and to God, 
which are eminently adapted to improve and 



24 ' 

elevate our characters. Let me hint at a few 
of them. 

I say, then, the great rebellion, now in pro- 
gress, furnishes, in the conduct of its leaders^ 
a striking illustration of the madness of human 
ambition. When the first demonstration of 
revolt was made, I confess I believed, and I 
presume most of us believed, that it was an 
honest, though sadly unjustifiable, measure of 
retaliation for what we were generally willing 
to acknowledge was an unreasonable interfe- 
rence, on the part of certain Northern men, 
with the peculiar institution of the South ; or 
that, if the evil complained of was more exten- 
sive than this, it was a supposed general dis- 
eased state of the Northern mind in relation to 
the same subject. But a speech from a distin- 
guished member of Congress from Pennsylva- 
nia,* which has since been substantially repro- 
duced in various public documents, convinced 
me, as I doubt not it did many others, that the 
rebellion which had then been formally pro- 
claimed, had another and a deeper cause than 
Northern Abolitionism. That speech proved, 
beyond a peradventure, that it was no unpre- 
meditated movement that Carolina was then 

* Hon. Edward McPherson. 



25 

making ; that it was the carrying out of a care- 
fully matured plan ; — a plan having for its object 
nothing less than the dissolution of the Union, 
which their and our fathers had constituted, 
and the establishment of a new empire, proba- 
bly after some transatlantic model. It was 
clearly because these men were disgusted with 
the levelling workings of our republican system, 
and wanted something more congenial with the 
tastes and habits of Aristocracy, that they ven- 
tured on the desperate experiment now in pro- 
gress. It was this that made them repudiate 
the obligations of a most solemn compact ; that 
lifted the State into an attitude of defiance 
against her whole loyal sisterhood ; that spread 
the spirit of revolt from State to State, till it 
seemed as if the little leaven would leaven the 
whole lump ; and that has now changed what 
was intended to be the theatre of its own tri- 
umph into a terrible field of devastation and 
slaughter. Did ever ambition accomplish for 
itself a more hateful, a more profitless, a more 
fatal work ? Does not every deserted village, 
every threatened city, every booming cannon, 
every soldier's grave, charge madness upon 

those whose unholy aspirations for power have 

4 



26 

thus turned beauty into deformity, prosperity 
into calamity, life into death ? 

Again : This rebellion, so far as respects the 
masses, is a wonderful instance of the workings 
of an extended popular delusion. Sadly do they 
misunderstand the actual state of things, who 
believe that the people of the South, as a body, 
are false to their own convictions, in engaging 
in this conflict. They have been trained to 
believe that nearly the whole North are bit- 
terly hostile to them, and are resolved that 
their slaves shall be set free, even though it 
be at the expense of a re-enactment of the 
bloody scenes of St. Domingo. And is it 
strange that, with such impressions, they should 
cheerfully follow the bidding of their leaders, 
in vindication of what they believe to be their 
own rights ? Is it strange that, in the faith of 
such a Proclamation as Beauregard made at 
Manassas, they should address themselves with 
lion-like courage, even with tiger-like ferocity, 
to the bloody work of retaliation ? Are you 
quite sure that, if you were to change places 
with them, and to have the veil over your 
eyes as it is over theirs, you would not follow in 
their footsteps, even to the work of death ? A 



27 

large part of all the evil committed in the 
world is to be referred to the influence of delu- 
sion. Men have only to put darkness for 
light, — to work themselves into the belief of a 
lie, and then carry out their own honest con- 
victions, to render themselves the scourges of 
society, — as the case may be, to spread desola- 
tion over a Continent. We can pity the vic- 
tims of popular delusion, but the authors of it 
the whole world view with abhorrence. 

Again : In the startling events of the day 
we may see luhat a mighty energy there is in the 
human will, especially when viewed in connec- 
tion with a widely extended sympathy and co- 
operation. All great achievements, so far as 
they are the result of human agency, have 
brought into vigorous exercise the mind's power 
of determination ; not excepting even those 
cases in which the Providence of God interpo- 
ses to bring about a different end from that 
which the projectors of the enterprise had con- 
templated. One year ago, though there were 
indeed dark clouds visible in our political hori- 
zon, yet those who profess to be wise in such 
matters, told us that they were mere flying, 
harmless clouds, that would quickly disappear. 



28 

We knew that many of our Southern brethren 
had been alienated from us, and most of us 
were willing to acknowledge that some of their 
complaints were not without cause ; but we felt 
that the tie which bound them and us together, 
was too sacred not to be indissoluble. Then 
we had no army that deserved the name. The 
few ships we had, which were only an apology 
for a navy, had nearly all gone off, strangely 
enough, into distant oceans. Our citizens were 
quietly pursuing their respective vocations, 
without molestation and without apprehension. 
The intercourse between the North and the 
South was constant and unembarrassed. And 
so firmly were we convinced of the substantial 
unity of the nation, that when decisive signs 
of disruption began to appear, we were slow to 
admit even the testimony of our senses. But, 
since that period, eleven States have abjured 
their allegiance to the Government, and boldly 
set up for themselves. More than a million of 
men have abandoned their accustomed occupa- 
tions, and rushed exultingly to the perils of a 
soldier's life. Our few scattered ships have 
been recalled for domestic service, and have 
proved the nucleus of an already efficient navy. 



29 

Terrible battles have been fought, — victories 
have been won, and defeats encountered, on 
both sides. And the history of the world may 
be challenged for a grander, more imposing, 
more appalling picture than our country pre- 
sents to-day. And all this has been accom- 
plished within much less than a year, by the 
energy of the human will ! May not this very 
reasonably exalt our conceptions of the dignity 
of our nature ? Who will not bow reverently 
before his own spirit, in consideration of its 
possessing an attribute that lifts it into such 
immediate alliance with Divinity ? 

Again : It would be difficult to find a 
more striking illustration than this rebellion 
presents, of the well-nigh boundless capabilities of 
human depravity. What an oJBfence against God 
and man was involved in that first thought 
in which the rebellion had its origin ; in the 
maturing of the thought into a plan ; in the 
development of the plan into open and horrible 
acts ! Herein God's command to be subject to 
the powers that be was trampled upon ; while 
the highest obligations of truth and justice 
towards man were outraged in the attempt to 
overthrow a government, which promised more 



30 

of blessing to the world thcaii any other. Such 
a plan as this, we should know, beforehand, 
could be accomplished only by means of the 
foulest treachery — and now that the mists in 
which the plan was conceived and carried for- 
ward, are cleared away, we are met with the 
revolting revelation that it has been nursed by 
men who sat in our halls of National Legisla- 
tion, and in the high places of our Govern- 
ment, and who were meanly receiving from the 
United States' treasury, from eight to twenty- 
one dollars a day, for grinding the axe by 
which they expected that the fair fabric of our 
Union was to be hewed in pieces. And the 
conflict which was begun in treachery, has 
been marked, in its progress, by barbarity, un- 
equalled in the annals of civilized warfare. 
Witness the deliberate torturing to death of 
some of the poor captives at Manassas ; and 
the perfectly fiend-like demonstration by which 
our troops were butchered in the village of 
Guyandotte ; and, more recently, the officially 
proclaimed threat that, if the law in relation to 
piracy, which we have in common Avith all 
civilized nations, is suffered to take its course, 
then one of our brave officers whom they hold 



31 

in captivity, and have already immured in a 
felon's cell, shall expiate the crime of the Gov- 
ernment, and wipe out the dishonour done to the 
Chivalry, amidst the horrors of the gallows. 
And last of all, Carolina, boasting and would- 
be bloody Carolina, is gravely, or rather madly, 
proposing to set the black flag, that terrible 
emblem of unsparing slaughter, waving in all 
her borders. Verily, these demonstrations, 
though coming only in the form of threats, 
must curdle the blood of the whole civilized 
world ! 

I say, these are terrible exhibitions of hu- 
man depravity ; but truth and fairness require 
me to add that much of guilt also, in connec- 
tion with the prosecution of this war, lies at 
our door. One crime that is patent to the 
whole world is falsehood. So unscrupulous is 
the Telegraph, which represents, I fear, but 
too faithfully, the state of the public conscience, 
that, when good tidings come, we have learned 
to suppress our joy, and when bad tidings come, 
we have learned to keep down our grief, until 
some two or three confirmatory messages have 
reached us. Not only is this a great evil in 
itself, — a gross ofience against both God and 



32 ' 

man, but it has already been productive of 
much positive disaster to the country, besides 
strengthening the hands of evil doers, and gen- 
erating a vast amount of needless apprehension. 
I may mention also the reckless disregard of 
private rights and private property, which has 
been manifested, here and there, by our sol- 
diers; though these wayward and destructive 
tendencies have, I believe, generally met with 
a stern rebuke from the proper military autho- 
rities. And there is yet another form which 
our iniquity has assumed, — I mean that of 
gross dishonesty in public contracts, — speculat- 
ing on the woes of the country, — giving to the 
poor soldiers, who are imperilling every thing 
for us, wooden-soled shoes, and flimsy, half- 
made garments, instead of the substantial arti- 
cles that were bargained for. Such conduct 
has in it the elements of meanness and cruelty 
as well as perfidy. They who are chargeable 
with it, had better leave it to others to expa- 
tiate upon the guilt, and determine the deserts, 
of traitors. 

I say then, my friends, whether you look at 
the North or the South, you see that this war 
is uncovering and rendering palpable the very 



33 

depths of human depravity. It is indeed a 
shocking spectacle to contemplate, and one 
which calls us to the deepest humiliation ; but 
it suggests counsel, warning, instruction, which 
cannot but do us good, if we lay it suitably to 
heart, and which may very properly, therefore, 
come into our remembrance on a Thanksgiving 
Day. 

Again : The rebellion furnishes a striking 
illustration of the silent growth of evil. That 
gigantic evil, with which the nation is now 
struggling, I may safely say, had a small begin- 
ning — possibly it began in deep silence, and 
amidst doubts, and conflicts, and gloomy fore- 
bodings, which it took much time and much 
hard dealing with the conscience to get rid of. 
I suppose it is generally admitted that the 
terrible movement was inaugurated, more than 
thirty years ago, by a great Southern politi- 
cian ; — a man of comprehensive and powerful 
intellect, of fine social qualities, and every way 
unexceptionable in private life, but still pos- 
sessing insatiable ambition and boundless obsti- 
nacy. His first demonstrations in favour of 
disunion were met by a spirit and a hand that 

awed the treasonable policy, not indeed out of 
5 



34 

existence, but into comparative silence. I do 
not wish to utter harsh words over any man's 
grave, or to heap odium on the memories of 
those who have gone to render their account — 
I cannot tell in what false lights that great 
man of whom I speak may have looked at his 
favourite project, and, as the result, fancied 
that he could justify it to his conscience ; but 
I do say that, if tradition deals justly with 
him, it was in his bosom that that serpent, 
whose deadly fangs have now struck into the 
very heart of our republic, was generated. At 
first, it was insensible, impalpable, unacknow- 
ledged ; but still there was life in it, — a life 
that was essentially venomous ; and it kept 
gradually gaining strength until the creature 
began to move. And, as the years passed 
away, it gathered nourishment from other 
hearts than that in which it was born; and 
a spirit of officious ultraism at the North 
contributed mterially to its growth; until, at 
length, the day came when it worked its way 
fully out of its hiding place, and stretched 
itself, to the full extent of its dimensions, 
across the land, — a huge monster, combining 
the poison of the viper with the boa-constric- 



tor's crushing jDOwer. And now, for months, 
it has been showing us its tongue of fire, and 
hissing out its bitter threats, and making 
a desperate effort to infold the whole nation in 
its deadly coils. I trust in God there is a 
spirit awake, before which, with all its viru- 
lence and strength, it will be obliged to quail ; 
but, meanwhile, it shows more impressively 
than words can do, not only how the spirit of 
evil chooses the darkness as its appropriate 
element, but how it sometimes accomplishes 
wonders before its existence even has been 
fairly detected. What a lesson of warning is 
here to note vigilantly the signs of the times, 
and to keep ourselves in an attitude for resist- 
ing evil, whenever, wherever, or however, it 
may manifest itself! 

I only add, under this branch of my subject, 
that the current events are bringing out the 
character of God, in some of its aspects, no less 
clearly than the character of man. God rules 
the world by fixed laws; and the danger is 
that the uniformity of their operation will 
make men oblivious of both his agency and his 
presence. Hence it is that, though these laws 
are always in force, working out their proper 



36 

results, yet to rebuke the tendencies to prac- 
tical atheism, which exist in many minds, God 
is pleased, sometimes, in the administration of 
his government, to come forth from the hiding- 
place of his power, clothed in unwonted 
majesty and terror. How manifest is it that, 
in the scenes through which we are now pass- 
ing, He is turning towards us some of the more 
awful aspects of his character ! Do we not 
feel that we are in contact with the retribu- 
tive justice of God ; that, though He has borne 
with us long, He has at length come out in 
judgment against us for our iniquities, while 
yet He tempers judgment with mercy ? That 
such a fearful conflict as this should have 
arisen, when we had begun to look out for the 
dawn of the millenial age, — and arisen here, 
on ground which had been consecrated by the 
presence of a pure Christianity for more than 
two centuries ; that this nation, after attaining 
a glorious manhood, should stand forth before the 
world as a house divided against itself, exhibit- 
ing the strangely revolting spectacle of men 
thirsting, even to desperation, for the blood of 
brothers;~that such a state of things should exist, 
I say, is a testimony, visible, palpable, that clouds 



37 

and darkness are round about Jehovah's Throne. 
Events have already occurred, too, in the pro- 
gress of the war, which have shown that it is 
God's province, not only to bring light out of 
darkness, but to render evil the minister of 
good. I doubt not that we have far more to 
be thankful for to-day, than we should have 
had but for some things that have made our 
hearts burn with indignation, or bleed with 
bitter grief. When, too, we bear in mind that 
this vast and complicated machinery, which is 
now at work, all over this land, with such 
mighty power, is all directed by Him who sit- 
teth in the Heavens, for the accomplishment 
of purposes which his own infinite wisdom has 
devised, can we forbear to exclaim, in the ful- 
ness of an humble and reverential spirit, — 
" Who is so great a God as our God !" 

Has not enough been said to justify my 
position that there are certain aspects of this 
dark day that make it a privilege to live in it ? 
Is it not a day when God's utterances to this 
nation are louder and more impressive than 
they ever were before ? Is it not a desirable 
thing to live when there are such unprece- 
dented advantages for studying the human 



38 

heart ; when God comes so near to us that we 
cannot but feel his terrible, and yet gracious, 
presence ; when the lessons He inculcates are 
at once identified with, and enforced by, the 
discipline He inflicts, and both are on a scale 
so grand and awful as to overawe every thought- 
ful and reverent spirit ? Truly, we do not 
mistake in reckoning this among the legitimate 
subjects of our thanksgiving. 

III. As another ground for thankfulness to- 
day, I may mention the fact — and I appeal to 
you to say whether it is not a fact — that, while 
we are constrained to regard a large portion of 
our Southern brethren, at present, as enemies, 
there is no prevailing hostility towards them in the 
North — if I understand the feeling, it is a strong 
sense of the criminality of the leaders, but a 
disposition to make large allowance for the 
masses, on the ground that they have been de- 
ceived by false representations ; while we 
would gladly welcome them all back to their 
allegiance, without asking for any humiliating 
concessions, or seeking to add to the burdens 
which they have so recklessly assumed. It 
certainly cannot be denied that we are accus- 
tomed to speak of their hostile demonstrations 



39 

in terms of strong disapproval ; particularly that 
some of our newspapers, in making their deliv- 
erances concerning them, are not over-careful 
to choose out the softest words — it could not 
be otherwise, unless the legitimate workings of 
human nature, even as it exists in good men, 
were suspended — ^nevertheless, I greatlj^ mis- 
take, if the general tone of Northern feeling 
towards the South is even allied to malignity 
or revenge. We will not indeed be so kind- 
hearted as to look on coolly, and make no re- 
sistance, while they are rushing forward in 
their present mad career — the very graves of 
our fathers would reproach us if we should re- 
fuse the sacrifice even of our blood, for the 
maintainance of those institutions which it 
cost their blood to establish. But we require 
nothing at their hands, but that they fall back 
into the position in which they were placed by 
that sacred league which they cannot violate, 
without insulting the memories of a galaxy of 
illustrious patriots, whose names constitute the 
pride of their own history. I know there are 
a few among us, who would violate the Consti- 
tution in one way, as they would violate it in 
another ; that is, who would move for an in- 



40 ' 

stantaneous and universal emancipation of their 
slaves, regardless of the fearful consequences 
that must ensue. But no such fanatical delu- 
sion as this has got possession of the Northern 
mind. Whatever rights the Constitution 
accords to them, we hold ourselves bound to 
respect, except in so far as the necessities 
of the war into which they have plunged us, 
may require that they should be infringed. 
Most of us have friends scattered through the 
South, and some of us, in nearly every disloy- 
al State, — who, either from conviction, or from 
the pressure of circumstances, are following 
the multitude : much as we regret their posi- 
tion, we have kind and grateful thoughts of 
them still ; and, if there should be an opportu- 
nity for the renewal of our intercourse with 
them, I am sure they would be as welcome to 
the hospitalities of our dwellings, and to any 
good services we could render them, as if no 
disruption had occurred. Such I verily believe 
to be the pervading tone of Northern feeling 
at this stage of the conflict ; and I leave it to 
you to decide whether this is not one of the 
things that ought to come into remembrance 
on this Thanksgiving Day. 



41 

IV. In the review of what has been already 
accomplished, looking towards our ultimate success 
in this great struggle, we find another cause of 
thankfulness to our Divine Benefactor. 

We cannot estimate this consideration aright, 
without taking"' into view the actual state of 
things, when the rebellion began to take on a 
palpable form. Had there been any prepara- 
tion made by our Government for holding her 
property against the ruthless hand of domestic 
invasion ? Had she taken care to husband her 
resources with prudent reference to being 
ready for an attack ; and, when the tocsin of 
war was sounded, had she nothing to do but to 
respond, by her hundreds of thousands of well 
armed men, ready to take the field ? So far 
from it, her own energies and resources had 
been perverted to prepare for making the 
attack, instead of acting on the defence ; and, 
when her traitorous agents threw off the mask, 
they evidently felt bold and strong in the con- 
viction that they had little else to do than to 
appropriate and enjoy the fruits of their perfi- 
dious labours. Their successors in ofiice were 
slow to believe even what their eyes saw ; and 
the measure of their indulgence, honourable as 
G 



42 

it may have been to their generous feel- 
ings, had well-nigh overtaxed the patience 
of the nation. But, at length, the fearful 
emergency glared upon them, so that they 
were not only convinced of the obligation, but 
shut up to the necessity, of vigorous effort ; and 
from that period may be said to date the com- 
mencement of a course of preparation for the 
conflict, which, for its rapidity, and extent, and 
thoroughness, may be safely pronounced to be 
without parallel in the history of the world. 
What it is I need not attempt to tell you — suffice 
it to say, it is a prodigious military and naval 
power, that is ready to be called into exercise 
whenever and wherever there is an exigency 
to require it. And more than that, — this 
power is constantly increasing; and still 
more, — the fountain from which it flows is 
inexhaustible. 

But it is not merely the fact that our Gov- 
ernment has made such formidable prepara- 
tions for attack and defence in so short a time, 
and that, too, against all the obstacles which 
Treason had been able to set up, — that calls 
for our gratitude ; but it is the additional fact 
that she has entered vigorously upon her work 



43 

of crushing the power that has set her authority 
at defiance. I should only recite the current 
events of the day, if I were to go into details on 
this subject; but it will occur to you, at once, 
that there are one or two strongholds, within the 
bounds of the self-styled Confederacy, which 
have never passed into their possession, whose 
terrible frown falls upon the whole surround- 
ing country like the shadow of death. You 
will remember, too, how nobly Maryland — to 
say nothing of Kentucky — has already been 
saved to the Union ; and that because the brave 
and patriotic Dix knew how to strangle Trea- 
son as well as to direct the use of artillery. 
You will think how manfully Western Vir- 
'ginia has withstood the storm that was pelting 
her, declaring her allegiance to the Nation 
at the expense of dissolving her connection 
with the State ; and now we have tidings that 
some of the Eastern counties, upon which the 
light of the admirable Proclamation from Fort 
McHenry has fallen, are moving in the same 
track. You will think of the victory at 
Hatteras Inlet, by which a ball was set in 
motion, that has rolled so fast and so far 
already, that the Stars and Stripes are floating 



44 

over large portions of North Carolina. And 
the yet later, and far paore important victory, 
at Port Royal, will, I am sure, come gratefully 
into your thoughts ; — a victory that has planted 
our National Flag on ground where it was dis- 
honoured first ; which secures greater advan- 
tages to our cause than could have been gained 
at almost any other point, and which must be 
like a dark sign in the heavens to those who 
are watching to see the American Eagle die. 
And last of all, I am sure you will not fail to 
remember (for it must have been in your 
thoughts ever since it occurred) that heroic 
adventure of the Naval Commander Wilkes, 
by which two rebel emissaries were waylaid, 
on their mission to foreign lands, and brought 
to breathe the air, and behold the faces, which 
they hated most ; thus defeating purposes of 
mischief, and making it perhaps a little more 
difficult to carry out the bloody threat in re- 
spect to Corcoran, and his brave associates in 
captivity. I only hint at these main facts, 
and leave it to your memory to supply the 
rest ; but I am sure you will agree with me 
that a sober review of the history of the last 
seven months brings before us many tokens of 



45 

the Divine favour, in our actual success, which 
it becomes us gratefully to acknowledge. 

But I hear some one say that this is but a 
one-sided representation of our case — it is 
alleged that these are only a few bright spots 
in a generally dark picture ; or, at best, that 
we have had too many disheartening reverses, 
mortifying defeats, to justify any great exulta- 
tion in view of our success. My first reply to 
this unpatriotic suggestion is, that war must 
always have its chances ; that, as it is con- 
ducted by imperfect men, however sagacious 
or brave they may be, there can be no security 
against occasional mistakes, that may seem 
temporarily to jeopard even the best cause. 
Then again, who does not perceive that the 
great disadvantage, on our part, under which 
the war was entered upon, was almost sure, in 
its earlier stages, to put to a severe test our 
faith in the ultimate triumph of our cause ? 
And, finally, while the defeats and embarrass- 
ments which we have actually encountered, 
have been no greater than we had a right to 
expect, they have only helped to strengthen 
the nation's heart ; and we have causes for 
thanksgiving this morning, which we should 



46 

not have had but for that dark and bloody day, 
which a portion of our army spent at Manassas. 
That there may have been errors of judgment 
in the conduct of the war, nobody will ques- 
tion ; but I submit to you whether, considering 
the vastness of the enterprise, the variety and 
complication of the interests involved, the 
fearful odds against which Treason and Re- 
bellion had to be met, we have not far more 
reason to testify of mercy than of judgment; 
of success than of defeat. 

y. Once more : If the past furnishes ground 
for thanksgiving, not less, surely, does the pros- 
pect that opens upon us. I say this in full view 
of the fact that the future is, to a great extent, 
hid in the bosom of Omniscience ; and that 
events which, by reason of our shortsightedness, 
we call contingencies, sometimes, temporarily 
at least, give a different direction to the gene- 
ral course of affairs from what we had desired 
and expected. Hence we are not to be disap- 
pointed if, in the progress of the conflict, there 
should be other reverses still in store for us, 
that will make even the most hopeful and 
jubilant feel, for the moment, like hanging 
their harps upon the willows. But, after mak- 



47 

ing all due allowance for the uncertainty that 
necessarily pertains to the future, I cannot but 
think that the signs of the times are so deci- 
dedly auspicious as to forbid all doubt that the 
contest will finally issue in the full re-estab- 
lishment of our Union. On the question, how 
soon this grand result may be reached, or how 
many cities may be sacked, or how many fields 
drenched in blood, before it shall be reached, 
the most far-seeing may well suppress even 
their conjectures ; but that our struggle is to 
find its end in this, seems to me scarcely less 
certain than that the order of nature will pro- 
ceed. 

If I mistake not, there were many of us 
who had grown so tired of the clamour of the 
South against the North and the North against 
the South, who had become so sick of read- 
ing Congressional Speeches steeped in gall, 
and especially of reading of such horrible 
facts as the raid of John Brown and his asso- 
ciates, and the doom which so speedily over- 
took them, that we were ready to say even, — - 
"Let the quarrel be terminated by a peaceful 
division of the Union." But, if we said 
this, as I know some of us did, it was an im- 



48 

patient and hasty judgment which a little 
reflection corrected. For we saw at once that 
the geographical position of the country for- 
bade a division ; that the very mountains and 
rivers lifted up their voice against it ; that the 
immense tract between the Atlantic and Pacific 
Oceans, between our great Lakes and the Gulf 
of Mexico,' had been determined, by Him w^ho 
fixes the bounds of our habitation, to be the 
natural home of one vast united people. And 
it is equally obvious that, while no limit can 
be fixed to the amount of blessing which such 
a nation, united, can procure for itself, and dif- 
fuse through the world, its division could be 
the harbinger of nothing but evil ; — evil to it- 
self, inasmuch as the separate States or Dis- 
tricts into which it would fall, would exhaust 
their energies in mutual jealousies leading to 
bitter conflicts ; evil to the rest of the world, 
as it would extinguish the last hope of a Repub- 
lican Government, and put more iron into the 
heart and the arm of every despot under heav- 
en. In view of these considerations, the loyal 
States have decided, — calmly and solemnly 
decided, that the Union shall not be broken ; 
that, by God's blessing, the machinations of 



49 

those who are plotting to bring about this 
mighty evil, shall be defeated. This purpose 
is declared in the sudden fading out, in a great 
measure, of party lines ; in the alacrity, the 
magnanimity, with which men, great men, of 
different political creeds, are seen rushing to 
the common rescue. And the purpose will be 
carried out ; — yes, carried out to the very let- 
ter; — for the spirit that has decreed it, you 
may chain when you can chain the rushing 
tempest ; or you may bribe, when you can 
bribe the angel that watches about you. What 
meaneth this vast army that has been brought 
together under an almost magical impulse ; 
while it has left behind the material for an- 
other, and yet another, army like it, — equally 
brave, equally patriotic, equally powerful; 
which it would require only the announcement 
of the exigency, to mould into form, and bring 
into the field ? What meaneth it that, when the 
veteran and venerable Commander-in-Chief 
retired, bearing with him the laurels he had 
been gathering for more than half a century, 
there was found among us a youthful hero, 
whom Providence had schooled to receive his 
mantle and take his place ; — a man as thought- 



50 

ful, and far-seeing, and modest withal, as he is 
brave ; — a man who had scarcely taken his mil- 
itary position before he threw up a grand en- 
trenchment around the Holy Sabbath, and who 
mingles with his wisely adjusted and thoroughly 
matured plans, devout acknowledgements of 
his dependence on a Higher Power ; and, I may 
add, a man who commands the perfect confi- 
dence, not only of the army and the country at 
large, but — what is certainly remarkable — of 
his own senior associates in high military office ? 
What mearieth it that the coffers of the rich 
are thrown open, and the earnings of the poor 
eagerly proffered, and money has come to be 
valued chiefly as an auxiliary to the successful 
issue of our struggle, and the restoration of our 
national prosperity ? I ask, what mean all 
these things, if not that the nation is as strong 
as she feels herself to be ; that the fact that 
her having determined that the Union shall 
not be dissolved, conveys to us all the assur- 
ance we need that, by God's blessing, it will 
not be dissolved ? Especially, may I not say 
this in view of the fact that the effort that is 
now making to destroy our Government, is an 
offence against the cherished memories of the 



51 

mighty dead; against the well-being of all 
coming generations ; and, not least, against the 
righteousness and goodness of God ? Yes, my 
friends, it is no presumption to believe that 
the Lord is on our side, and therefore our cause 
will certainly prosper. 

But this conflict contemplates, in its issue, 
something more than the mere preservation of 
our Union, — the perpetuation of our institutions 
on their old basis. It looks towards progress. 
We have reason to believe that it is destined 
to originate a cure for some of our great national 
evils, as well as to otherwise greatly improve 
and exalt our national character. The greatest 
evil that, as a nation, we have had to 
encounter, — certainly the greatest, if measured 
by the amount of calamity which it has brought 
upon the country at large, — is Slavery. Scarcely 
a generation has passed away since the verdict 
of our Southern friends upon this institution 
was just what ours is now ; — that is, they saw 
in it an evil of appalling dimensions, from 
which the mass of them would gladly have 
been free, if a door of deliverance had been 
open ; but, since that time, the earth has been 
bringing forth a plant that has acted so 



strangely on their moral and mental vision, that 
that which they used to deprecate as a pro- 
lific source of evil, is now exalted into the 
rank of the highest positive blessings. None 
of us, even those who are most tolerant of the 
institution, believe that the light of the 
millenial day will dawn upon any husbands 
and wives, any parents and children, standing 
up like cattle to be examined by the traders 
in immortality, and then to hear the auctioneer's 
iron voice, revealing to them the fixctthat they 
are looking upon each others' faces for the last 
time. An institution which includes this 
among its provisions, all the generous instincts 
of our nature, to say nothing of the teachings 
of God's word, brand as a high offence against 
humanity. Nevertheless, this institution actu- 
ally exists ; aye, and exists under the shadow 
of the Constitution of the United States. 
Though the heart of a large part of the 
American people has bewailed this feature in 
our national condition, no one knew where to 
look for relief, so long as the Constitution 
should remain unchanged ; and hence those 
convulsive spasms in favour of stealthy or 
forcible emancipation, into which a certain 



53 

party at the North have been wrought, at the 
expense of showing themselves recreant to the 
laws of the land. But, if I mistake not, some 
beams of light begin now to penetrate this 
darkness. Not that you or I believe that we 
are sending armies to the South on any 
other mission than to maintain our Govern- 
ment, by putting down the rebellion that 
has assailed it; but there may be incidental 
results from this struggle, in which the death- 
warrant of the institution shall be writ- 
ten, — aye, and written by the very hands 
that were pledged to do their part in bearing 
it triumphantly onward to the end of time. 
It seems evident that the movement of our 
armies into the Southern country has already 
put new thoughts into the minds of many of 
the slaves ; and it would not be strange if it had 
also awakened fresh aspirations for freedom — 
and who can say that these aspirations may not 
gradually ripen into purposes, and finally, 
(which may Heaven forbid,) into forcible and 
terrible acts ? We hear of them also, in large 
numbers, actually coming within our lines ; 
and I submit it to you whether the doctrine 
lately proclaimed by a distinguished military 



54 

oflBcer, and publicly sanctioned by the Secre- 
tary of War, and more recently by two other 
of our eminent citizens who have been marked 
for their conservatism, — that the slaves of rebel 
masters may be legitimately used for doing 
loyal work, is not a doctrine according to 
reason and justice. If it be said that the 
Constitution for which we are fighting makes 
no provision for our appropriating the labour of 
the slaves under any circumstances, I answer, 
the Constitution never contemplated the anom- 
alous crisis that has overtaken us. War is a 
mighty, absolute potentate, that recognizes a 
law in its own necessities, and deals summarily 
with any code that interferes with that " higher 
law." What ultimate advantage to the cause of 
freedom, if any, shall result from this tempo- 
rary interference with the workings of the 
institution, it must be left to Providence to 
determine. But the great fact, in the presence 
of which Slavery trembles most, is, that Eng- 
land, and the other European countries, are 
already looking to other parts of the w^orld for 
a supply of the article to which the dreams of 
our Southern friends had given an almost 
omnipotent control ; but the moment the 



55 

sceptre departs from the hands of that flimsy 
king, the motive that has hitherto existed for 
the extension of Slavery, will give place to an 
equally powerful motive for its curtailment, if 
not its absolute extinction. We need not fear 
to leave the whole matter with Divine Provi- 
dence — what we have to do is to prosecute the 
war for the end for which it has been inaugu- 
rated; and if, as an incidental consequence, 
Slavery should be shorn of a part or the whole 
of its strength, we shall none of us feel called 
upon to go into mourning. 

But, whatever may be the effect of this war 
upon Slavery, we cannot doubt that it is to 
exert a mighty influence, in other ways, to 
elevate the character and destiny of our nation. 
Our long continued national prosperity had 
well-nigh dispossessed us of all that manly 
moral strength, that heroic love of country, 
which we had inherited from our fathers: it 
had made us idolaters of silver and gold ; and, 
in worshipping at that ignoble shrine, all the 
finer, grander national qualities had become 
absolutely dwarfed. But the benefits of this 
fiery trial are already becoming apparent. 
Patriotism, which had become so weak and 



sickly as to be scarcely recognized, has renewed 
her strength, and is abroad, fulfilling her 
sublime mission wherever there are subjects to 
act upon, — no matter whether in the crowded 
city or the retired hamlet. The spirit of 
inglorious ease is dying out every where, and 
the spirit of noble self-sacrifice is coming in its 
place. Our young men are leaping for joy, 
to leave the blandishments of a pleasant home, 
that they may encounter the perils and 
sacrifices incident to the camp and battle 
field. Our old men are beginning to feel the 
beatings of young hearts again, and some of 
them are actually carrying muskets upon 
shoulders that have been bearing burdens for 
more than threescore years. Our matrons and 
maidens have found out that their country is 
something to them; and they are making it 
manifest that they are determined to be some- 
thing to their country. By the discipline of 
his providence, God is teaching us lessons ot 
the highest wisdom, — especially to acknow- 
ledge our supreme allegiance to Him, and to 
identify all hopes of national prosperity with 
the enjoyment of his favour. Is not our 
country then, in this baptism of fire, under- 



5Y 

going a process of purification in every part of 
the intellectual and moral material that com- 
poses it ? Have we not a right to expect that 
our future will be brighter because of the 
darkness of the present ; that out of this 
passing scene that seems so wild and chaotic, 
there will rise a new creation, that will make 
us, in a fxr hioher sense than we have ever 
been before, the joy and praise of the whole 
earth ? 

Yes, my friends, it is no vision, — it is a 
sublime reality, that we are contemplating. Do 
you not know how the literal furnace not only 
tries but purifies the precious metal that is cast 
into it ? Do you not know how the furnace of 
affliction separates the gold from Ihe dross, 
in the case of the individual Christian, — throw- 
ing into a clear strong light those graces which 
had before seemed dubious, and lifting him 
into a far nobler specimen of the Divine work- 
manship than he had ever been before ? Believe 
me, in these transforming processes is strik- 
ingly represented the glorious change that is 
now going forward amidst these deep shadows 
in which our land is embosomed. It is indeed 
a bloody storm that is raging. The watchman, 



58 

who is inquired of concerning the night, reports 
no signs of the morning yet. But things are 
all the time working, and the result will ere 
long be manifest. I wait a little, and the cloud 
begins to move, and presently I am gazing upon 
a clear bright sky. I see my country once 
more a unit; — all the wandering stars brought 
back into their spheres, and constituting a gal- 
axy that even the angels love to gaze upon. I 
behold all the States bound together, not only 
in the bonds of a common sisterhood, but in a 
goodly ministration of blessing to each other 
and to the world. I see the great work of 
moral renovation advancing apace, until, by 
and by, a flood of millenial glory comes pour- 
ing in. And now begins the Jubilee, the great 
Thanksgiving Day, of the world. Oh, if my 
poor, bleeding country could, by the vision of 
faith, take in this grand prospect, sure I am 
that she would have no eye for the darkness of 
the present ; no tongue but to make the moun- 
tains, and the vallies, and the forests, as well 
as the temples of the living God, echo to her 
grateful notes of praise ! 



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